HC3031 Assignment 1: Trends in Global Business Environment Report

This report examines the evolving trends within the global business environment, focusing on the impacts of globalization, strategic planning, and organizational restructuring. It begins by defining globalization and its increasing importance, highlighting the core article, "State of Globalization in 2019," and its insights on the shifting dynamics of international trade, foreign direct investment, and the challenges faced by businesses. The report then delves into four key questions derived from the core article, supported by related research: the disputes in the United States, the impacts of globalization on various economic factors, the role of strategic planning in turbulent environments, and how firms can restructure their organizational architecture to remain competitive. The analysis covers topics such as trade disputes, labor market regulations, and organizational flexibility, providing a comprehensive overview of the current global business landscape and the strategies required for success.

Running head: TRENDS IN THE GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
TRENDS IN THE GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1TRENDS IN THE GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Introduction
The process of facilitating integration and interaction among companies, government
and people across the world is known as Globalization. The phenomenon of globalization
have grown in the presence of the advanced of communication, transportation technology.
The enhanced level of interactions results in the growth and development of culture,
international trade and ideas (Doan and Wan 2017). The phenomenon of globalization is
considered as the economic process in regards with integration and interaction which
associates/connects with the cultural and social aspects (Steger 2017). The purpose of the
paper is to discuss about the changing state of globalization in today’s world. The problem
with the lack of understanding and knowledge about the lack of knowledge will be
highlighted in the paper. The information about the changing state of globalization is
important because Globalization is believed for opening international access as well as it
contributes towards lowering the cost related to customer service. The core article selected
for the paper is the State of Globalization in 2019. Four questions will be deduced from the
paper in regards with the core article as well as each question will be linked with four related
articles. The paper will be concluded by presenting a summary and link of the selected
articles.
Body
The core article depicted the changing nature of globalization. In the year 2017, the
world experienced a strong growth in regards with the DHL Global Connectedness Index.
The article reflected the scenario of 2018 which the globe experienced threats as the tariff
increased from the dispute of United States and other trade partners. Moreover, the countries
strategically tightened the screening of the foreign corporate takeovers, immigrations and
advanced policies of data localization (Ghemawa and Altman 2019). The development of
such tightening has started to reflect on the international flows. The core article demonstrated

2TRENDS IN THE GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
the declining flow of FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) and a steady increase of trading
activities (Ghemawa and Altman 2019). The article indicated that although the momentum of
globalization is strong but the integration of market is still in limited terms. The multinational
companies’ foreign operational activities around the world generates only 9 percent of global
output as well as the exports of services and goods amounts up to 29 percent of the world
GDP (Ghemawa and Altman 2019). The core article depicted survey results of six countries
in the year 2017, which indicated the trade metrics and international production of around 41
percent and 37 percent respectively. The article indicated that even the trading activities
across the borders may be difficult but the firms, which specializes for overcoming the
challenges, reflects the capabilities of transforming barriers to rewards. The core article
presented various recommendations for the strategies like how can the firms compete and the
functional areas of competing in the presence of global trading activities and the
understanding about business architecture (Ghemawa and Altman 2019). The question of
how to compete in the changing global scenario is answered by the core article. It depicted
that the companies with a marginal or minimal competitive positions in foreign boundaries
will become vulnerable with the increasing threats of globalization. The changing policies
and scenario have to be responded by strategic planning of long-term development. The
question of ‘where’ can be answered by the specific preferences of the firms as it has been
observed that organizations tend to conduct trading activities in its neighbouring countries
(Ghemawa and Altman 2019). Lastly the core article indicated that if a firm changes the
geographical footprint or the geographical strategies, the firm would have to restructure its
organizational architecture. The shift towards the aggregation will require the strengthening
of research and development functions (Ghemawa and Altman 2019). The key questionable
factors are – what were the disputes in the United States, what are the impacts of
globalization are, what is strategic planning and how can firms restructure its organizational
architecture.

3TRENDS IN THE GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
1. What were the disputes in the United States? – Beyond Retaliation
The article depicts a clear picture about the various disputes and the dispute
settlement system that prevailed in the United States. The article used a case study approach
and assessed all the disputes and the effects of them on the system. It also states that the
Dispute Settlement Understanding had several gaps in it that allowed manipulation in the
trading systems. Several compliance problems are associated with trading in United States as
well as the dispute settlement. There were several disputes relating to the import and export
of several items. There were disputes related to the banana import, as it had to undergo
several tariff, quotas and licensing systems. The Anti-Dumping Act was another notable
dispute for the US. It tried to force the United States for repealing the statue. Terrible
damages as well as violations were allowed under this Act of 1916 (Taylor 2017). The other
notable disputes mentioned are the Upland Cotton, Gambling, Zeroing and COOL
requirements. The article revealed that the developed states avoided compliance and
continued to seek illegal advantages until they can arrange for final settlements. It concluded
the compliance review panel of the US to be illegal (Taylor 2017).
2. What are the impacts of Globalization? - New impacts of globalization
The article states that there are several issues of globalization. It impacts employment
opportunity and availability, financial and non-financial payments to the employees,
innovation, trade and many more. It affects the labour market regulations and more
specifically has an effect on the employment protection. It also has an impact on the
remittances of the migrants and the after affects the economic growth of a developed country
(Bellone 2019). Remittances increase the external funding that affects the countries involved
in the transaction. The globalization has also led to the increase in the bank loans, which is
resulting in high amount of debts for the private sectors (Bellone 2019). A consolidated

4TRENDS IN THE GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
statistical report has been analysed in the report to assess the micro and macro economic
impacts of globalization. The findings of the article state that the increasing debt burden of
the private sector is associated with credit demand, appreciation in the real exchange rates
changes in the monetary policy as well as fluctuations in the interest rates. The article
features how globalization can impact the volatility of wealth, long-term growth, employment
and the subnational inequalities (Bellone 2019).
3. What is Strategic Planning? – Strategic planning and organisational flexibility in
turbulent environments.
This article explains how the organisation deals with the turbulences in the business
environment. It highlights the concept of strategic planning and its role in this context. It
states that globalisation has increased competition. Strategic planning is thus necessary to
survive in this competitive industry. The article explores how strategic planning enhances
firms’ performance levels. The article has provided a deep understanding about the
environmental uncertainties and also about strategic planning to fight those uncertainties. It
states that strategic planning involves strategic foresight which means future oriented
practices and techniques. The paper compared and contrasted Shell and Nokia and concluded
that strategic planning varies as per the complexity of the uncertainties that the organisation
faces (Vecchiato 2015).
4. How can the firms restructure its organizational architecture?- Organizational
Restructuring and Collaborative Creativity: The Case of Microsoft and Sony
The article explored the innovative needs and cross dependencies among various
organizational departments that are resulting in the restructuring of the organizations. The
article has provided information on how Sony and Microsoft formulated organizational
restructuring in the competitive scenario. The article states that organizational structure is an

5TRENDS IN THE GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
important determinant in understanding a company’s strategy. The increasing
competitiveness in the market has forced most of the companies to restructure their
organization. Apple and Google have always challenged Microsoft and Sony and hence they
also underwent a restructuring process. It has been seen that Apple and Google are
‘Creativity-Driven Competitors’. Google has an innovation driven success and so does
Apple. The structure followed by Google is a functional structure and that of Apple is a
matrix structure (Kriesler and Nevile 2016). Microsoft and Sony transformed the structure
into a divisional structure. Microsoft gave more independence to the business unit managers,
consolidated the seven divisions into three separated the server and tools business from
products and service division and also restructured its device management structure. Sony
organized itself into eight divisions, reduced the 10-company structure to three-network
structure and further reorganized itself into five business divisions (Dhillon and Gupta 2015).
Microsoft has recently transformed into functional organizational structure making it more
communicative, collaborative and decisive. It states that creativity and innovation is the
ultimate structure for organizational success (Dhillon and Gupta 2015).
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above discussion that the trends in the global business
environment affects the organization in numerous ways. The way a company performs, the
disputes within the organization and the dispute settlement system have impact on the
functioning of the organizations. Globalization also has adverse effects on employment,
economic growth and rates. The organizations are therefore adopting several restructuring
procedures on the basis of the environmental uncertainties to survive the increased
competition.

6TRENDS IN THE GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
References:
Bellone, F., 2019. New impacts of globalization–Introduction to selected papers presented at
the 66th Annual Congress of the French Economic Association. Economie & Statistique,
(503-504), pp.79-85.
Dhillon, I. and Gupta, S., 2015. Organizational Restructuring and Collaborative Creativity:
The Case of Microsoft and Sony. IUP Journal of Business Strategy, 12(1).
Doan, H.T.T. and Wan, G., 2017. Globalization and the labor share in national income.
Ghemawa, P. and Altman, S. 2019. State of Globsalisation in 2019. The State of
Globalization in 2019, and What It Means for Strategists.
Kriesler, P. and Nevile, J.W., 2016. Macroeconomic impacts of globalization. In Post-
Keynesian Essays from Down Under Volume II: Essays on Policy and Applied
Economics (pp. 32-47). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Steger, M.B., 2017. Globalization: A very short introduction(Vol. 86). Oxford University
Press.
Taylor, C. (2017). Beyond Retaliation. Beyond Retaliation.
Vecchiato, R., 2015. Strategic planning and organizational flexibility in turbulent
environments. Foresight, 17(3), pp.257-273.